Man was a loyal friend

With so many friends and family members attending his memorial Friday, countless stories could have been told about Clinton “C.J.” Joseph Hubbard being there for those he loved.

But on a gray, drizzly afternoon at San Francisco Solano Catholic Church in Rancho Santa Margarita, Hubbard’s friends and family had to be there for each other. More than 500 in all, they laughingly and tearfully remembered the 27-year-old Corona del Mar resident.

He died Nov. 27, a day after a blood vessel inside his brain burst after he was allegedly punched in the head outside a Newport Beach nightclub early Thanksgiving morning.

Hubbard was stubborn, competitive and loved to laugh, his father, Clint L. Hubbard, said during Friday’s service. He was stubborn in his devotion to certain principles, loyalty among them.

Loyalty to a truly good man, friends and family said, is what brought mourners from as far away as Alaska and Florida together. Hubbard’s best friend, Matt Woolley, said he’ll forever be grateful to Hubbard for that loyalty.

In 2008, Woolley’s grandfather was on his deathbed at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach. A personal hero to him, Woolley said that every time he tried to tell his grandfather just how much he meant to him, he couldn’t find the words.

So Hubbard sat him down at their Newport Beach apartment kitchen table.

Hubbard walked Woolley through everything his friend wanted to tell his grandfather and wrote it down.

The next morning, Woolley said, he delivered the words he had struggled to find on his own.

“Although it was one of the saddest times of my life, I had no regrets. And that was thanks to C.J.,” Woolley said, choking with emotion.

“To be a friend with C.J. was a commitment to have fun together and to care for each other,” his father said, looking out over the massive audience. “In 27 years, this many people made this many connections with him.”

Hubbard was taken off life support the day after witnesses reported that he collapsed and lost consciousness when someone punched him outside the nightclub.

Newport Beach police said another witness gave a conflicting account, saying Hubbard had simply collapsed. A coroner’s toxicology report is expected to determine the cause of death.